The Times on Blogging (Again)

I thought of Timothy Burke's comment at Laura's when I read The Waiter You Stiffed Has Not Forgotten. In response to Laura's response to the article on parents' blogs, Burke wrote, "I think you misunderstood what it is that the Times has a low regard for. It's not parenting, it's blogging." After reading this article, which discusses weblogs kept by servers (www.bitterwaitress.com, www.waiterrant.blogspot.com and www.webfoodpros.com are mentioned), I tend to disagree that the Times has an across-the-board low regard for blogging. Julia Moskin, the author of the article, seems alarmed at the pent-up hostility of the posters:

The vengefulness of the posts, and the recurrence of anecdotes that involve adding foreign fluids to customers' food, from breast milk to laxatives, is enough to turn anyone who dares to enter a restaurant into a nervous, toadying wreck.

but simultaneously sympathetic; waiting tables is a stressful job, and people who do it need to vent. She's written a pretty even-handed piece which includes quotes from servers and from higher-ups in the restaurant industry, who, not surprisingly, disapprove of the blogs.